1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a pattern data converting method and a data converting apparatus employed by a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus and a pattern inspection apparatus which use numeric data, particularly, a pattern data converting method and a pattern data converting apparatus which are used for drawing or inspecting photomasks which are employed in manufacturing semiconductor devices and liquid crystal display panels or patterns formed on wafers or liquid crystal boards.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, in a pattern drawing apparatus and a pattern inspection apparatus, a photomask is arranged on a X-Y stage, and an electron beam while moving this stage scans the entire surface of the photomask. In this time, the design data read into the drawing apparatus or inspection apparatus is used in a form of plural design strip regions obtained by dividing rectangular region data, i.e., chip data. In other words, in a conventional data converting method used for the conventional drawing apparatus or inspection apparatus, design chip data is stored in a magnetic disc of a computer and the like, and the process till the design chip data are cut out into strip data for the apparatus is performed by software on the computer. This strip data is output to the hard input memory of the receptacle port of hardware. The strip data of this input memory is subjected to hardware process such as pattern generation and shot pattern generation.
It is difficult to describe data of the mask entire surface in one chip in a mass since the method of describing the design data of a LSI pattern becomes more and more complicated. For this reason, a method for arranging and coupling plural chip data is necessary for drawing and inspection of one mask. However, merely converting of such data makes the number of shuttles of the stage in the drawing and inspection increase. Further, the design data has to be remade in order to reduce the number of shuttles of the stage, and shorten the drawing time and inspection time. However, many time and labor are necessary to remake design data. Accordingly, the design data remaking is difficult substantially.